Tear You Apart by Sarah CrossSeries: Beau Rivage #2
Published by Egmont USA on January 27, 2015
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Retelling, Supernatural, Young Adult
Pages: 384
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Faced with a possible loophole to her "Snow White" curse, Viv goes underground, literally, to find the prince who's fated to rescue her. But is life safe in the Underworld worth the price of sacrficing the love that might kill her?
POP CULTURE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF TWISTING FAIRY TALES: ABC's Once Upon a Time and NBC's Grimm continue to pull in high ratings. And with the anticipated Angelina Jolie Maleficent (2014), the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods (2014), and Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella (2015), Hollywood is infected with fairy tale fever.
CAMEOS FROM FAVORITE CHARACTERS: Viv, who first appeared in Kill Me Softly trailed by her brooding boy-toy Henley, takes center stage in this new Beau Rivage tale. Other familiar characters including Blue and Jewel are back to help her defy her destiny.
Whelp. It tore me apart.
I absolutely underestimated how much I’d love Kill Me Softly two years ago and was absolutely heartbroken when I realized it was a stand-alone…until it was announced that there would be a companion continuing Viv’s story. (Which, of course, means that there’d better be books for Jewel and Layla or I will write a petition.) These retellings are simply fantastic in the way that they’re not entirely retellings, so much as loosely based on several fairy tales at once. With so many different familiar characters and curses in one town, it’s hard for none of them to bleed into one another, but Cross manages to tie them all together with a neat bow and an even neater story.
The world of Beau Rivage is possibly one of my favorites. With so many different versions of the same fairy tale character, it’s easy enough to find quirkiness in this small town setting. With magic and actual prince charmings, curses, and infamous futures, it’s even easier to fall into the world and there’s nothing quite like going into a book, knowing the world and still managing to be enchanted by it. It’s just fascinating–this modernized world that’s steeped in legends and fairy tales, with more than a few frogs waiting to be princes and princesses waiting for (and dreading) their fairy tale.
And speaking of princesses and their fairy tales, there are only really two routes a girl under a Curse can go, and yet, Cross managed to shock me several times throughout the course of the novel. While there were a few obvious points, there were still more than enough twists that managed to turn my head. I read the entire story in about one sitting (and slept far later than I should’ve on a school night), so I can definitely attest to the intrigue of the plot and the constant wondering of what happens next.
There’s definitely an element of fairy tale in the plot though, giving it a sort of more wistful and magical side than the darker and grungier edge I would’ve expected from a story from Viv’s POV. While not technically a bad thing, it’s just something I thought to point out. (Although to be fair, since the setting is the Underworld, there’s still plenty about it that’s dark.)
Henley and Viv’s relationship was definitely an interesting one, and while it did make the conflict of the novel more prominent and kept you guessing, I can’t say it was a healthy one. Viv would intentionally make Henley jealous and in turn, Henley would only act monstrous (to the point of smashing someone’s car to pieces). There wasn’t really a rhyme or reason with these two and it was just sort of chaos–which did give it the edge I was looking for, but perhaps not exactly in the way I was expecting.
A fabulously rich companion to Kill Me Softly, Tear You Apart holds many of the same elements that I adored so much in it’s predecessor. As Belle says, “far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!” How can you not love it?
About Sarah Cross
Sarah Cross is the author of the fairy tale novels and Tear You Apart (coming January 2015), the superhero novel , and the Wolverine comic “The Adamantium Diaries.” She loves fairy tales, lowbrow art, secret identities and silence.
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